Ninja Gaiden Creator, Itagaki, will have to look elsewhere for funding.

THQ is still bleeding money like a stuck piggy bank. Despite a 44% increase in digital sales in its fourth quarter, the company has managed to lose $240 million dollars in the past year. Naturally, belts are going to have be tightened, dead weight thrown overboard, and all manner of other money saving metaphors enacted. Sadly, Devil's Third, the upcoming game from Tomonobu Itagaki, has has been let go, with CEO Brian Farrell announcing that the game's "'profitability profile" didn't meet THQ's new "internal threshold."

THQ blames "unforeseen events" for its decision, pointing out that Valhalla games had begun work on the title, only for the company providing the game's engine to go under. That and the growing strength of the Japanese yen against the US dollar is making investments in Japanese companies seem less appealing. THQ is currently trying to sell the project to another publisher.

Things are looking glum for THQ, but now that the company has abandoned its disastrous uDraw Game Tablet plans and restructured itself to concentrate on its core titles, the 2013 fiscal year is looking more promising. There's a standalone extension to the Saints Row universe, Darksiders II, sequels to PC darlings, Company of Heroes and Metro 2033 and of course, the annual WWE game. It's just a shame they had to throw Itagaki, and his sunglasses collection, overboard.

Well, its sad to see THQ doing so poorly financially. It just goes to show, don't bank all your money on an unproven peripheral. At least they could probably sell all the leftover udraw tablets as an alternative to bricks as a construction material.

THQ blames "unforeseen events" for its decision, pointing out that Valhalla games had begun work on the title, only for the company providing the game's engine to go under. That and the growing strength of the Japanese yen against the US dollar is making investments in Japanese companies seem less appealing.

Please explain. Doesn't this mean the Japanese companies are doing better?

THQ blames "unforeseen events" for its decision, pointing out that Valhalla games had begun work on the title, only for the company providing the game's engine to go under. That and the growing strength of the Japanese yen against the US dollar is making investments in Japanese companies seem less appealing.

Please explain. Doesn't this mean the Japanese companies are doing better?

It means the price of production also increases. If you were a Japanese company investing in another Japanese company then there isn't much of an effect there, but if you're an overseas company (namly an American one) then the cost to invest is higher than what it would be before, as you're now going to have to shell out more money to reach the appropriate costs. Think of it like this: Originally, country A had a strong dollar while country B had a weak one, so if a company in country A wanted to invest say 10 dollars worth towards a company in country B, the company only has to invest 5 dollars (assuming the rate here is A=2B). However, later country A's dollar weakens while country B's dollar grows, so now if a company in country A wants to invest 10 dollars towards a company in country B, they are now actually going to have to pay 20 dollars to cover the cost (assuming the rate in this case is 2A=B)

THQ blames "unforeseen events" for its decision, pointing out that Valhalla games had begun work on the title, only for the company providing the game's engine to go under. That and the growing strength of the Japanese yen against the US dollar is making investments in Japanese companies seem less appealing.

Please explain. Doesn't this mean the Japanese companies are doing better?

It means the price of production also increases. If you were a Japanese company investing in another Japanese company then there isn't much of an effect there, but if you're an overseas company (namly an American one) then the cost to invest is higher than what it would be before, as you're now going to have to shell out more money to reach the appropriate costs. Think of it like this: Originally, country A had a strong dollar while country B had a weak one, so if a company in country A wanted to invest say 10 dollars worth towards a company in country B, the company only has to invest 5 dollars (assuming the rate here is A=2B). However, later country A's dollar weakens while country B's dollar grows, so now if a company in country A wants to invest 10 dollars towards a company in country B, they are now actually going to have to pay 20 dollars to cover the cost (assuming the rate in this case is 2A=B)

Really, really gutted about this. Say what you will about his love of boobs, Itagaki is an absolutely stellar game designer, and it's well known that he took the majority of the talent at Team Ninja with him when he left. Hopefully they can find another publisher, because I for oen am really excited to see what the guys behind Ninja Gaiden can do when they decide to make a TPS game.

This has basically been the heart of the issue involving Japanese companies dealing with the US market in general. Due to their refusal to spread their products in the states in a real effort (instead of say, a one off thing, or lip service in order to maintain the minimum presence possible), they have passed on many, many dollars they could have gotten, and meanwhile they report massive losses because they stubbornly refuse to budge from Japan, where the market is saturated.